New Year's Day 2023
New Year’s has always been a favorite holiday of mine. In more recent years taking the cake for my top favorite. There’s just something so refreshing + inspiring about a fresh slate, a clean from holiday decor house + commonly an empty January schedule to spend mostly at home.
How we spend our Jan 1 — the New Year’s the year after we got married (which was also a really hard year for myself in the mental health department,) I decided to start a tradition + make New Year’s a big deal. Not a party or an outing, but time intentionally spent for the two of us to get away + intentionally refocus our attention. This year was our fourth New Year’s married. Here’s how + it’s went:
2020 — family trip to Manhattan, KS for a college basketball game.
2021 — late night trip to North Platte (literally only forty minutes from our house) staying in a Zoeyy friendly hotel after brunch at the cheapest (and possibly most questionable) place in town.
2022 — snow storm + sick on the couch for three days.
2023 — weekend trip to Estes Park, CO to photograph couple of friends’ elopement, again staying in a Zoeyy friendly hotel.
GOALS
On our way home from Colorado I spent a lot of time brain dumping all the goals I wanted to focus on this year. After said brain dump session I counted them up + not so coincidentally [because I don’t believe in coincidences… that’s all Jesus] there were exactly 23 things on my list. Without any further thought I ran with it. They all felt right, God given + Sawyer full heartedly agreed. With a few hidden for privacy, they are listed below.
WORD OF THE YEAR
Each New Year’s I try to also think of a word for the year to focus on. Generally the word comes to me in a total natural + unexpected way. This year days kept passing + nothing seemed to stick out to me, so I texted a friend my list of goals. She almost instantly responded with purpose explaining everything on my list of goals was directly tied to either my purpose or a specific purpose. It felt perfect. In the days following I found so much confirmation in the word, seeing + hearing it in multiple quotes, books + podcasts.
